When sorting a collection of unsorted articles is desired, a sorting conveyor can be used to accomplish the task. A sorting conveyor is a circular, rectangular, or other shape endless chain or line having associated with it one or more loading stations where unsorted articles are placed onto the conveyor and one or more drop stations where articles are deposited into sorted groups.
Loading the sorting conveyor with articles to be sorted involves moving the conveyor past a loading station. At the loading station, articles from an unsorted sequence of articles are placed, one by one, onto the sorting conveyor at discrete points along its length. The sorting conveyor can be loaded with articles in any order.
The sorting of articles is accomplished by moving the loaded conveyor past a drop station which selects certain articles from the conveyor in a specified order. In this way, a sequence of articles loaded on the sorting conveyor can be converted into a sorted sequence at one or more drop stations.
In order to sort a collection of unsorted articles using a sorting conveyor, it is necessary to determine the identity of each article. Furthermore, the identity of each article must be associated with the location on the sorting conveyor at which such article is loaded.
Once loaded on the sorting conveyor, the articles can be sorted. Generally, the sorting process involves selecting particular articles to unload from the sorting conveyor. The order of the sort is the order in which articles are removed from the sorting conveyor at one or more drop stations.